China’s new currency.. online
So in the ever increasing blurring of virtual and physical world, I just read this piece on a new virtual currency in China, the QQ, (via techmeme, I think..) that is increasingly being used for physical world purchases. In some ways this is similar to Linden Dollars and their exchange, but the QQ seems more needs driven and less manipulation prone than Second Life’s mildly contrived forex system.
I think it’s pretty interesting how people will take a technology and use it to fill in gaps in their current system. I guess in this case it filled the need that credit/debit cards fill in other countries where their use is more widespread. That’s the sign of good technology - something that gets used in useful ways that it was never envisioned to do.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the end. Clearly there is a need for something like this in China, I wonder if they will be successful in blocking its use (RIAA style) or either come up with a solution that targets directly the underlying need or try to work with tencent to make it work better in it’s new role as credit substitute.
